A Poplar Bluff High School student dressed up as a member of the Ku Klux Klan as part of classroom studies on Friday, according to news reports and social media posts.

Cape Girardeau-based KFVS reported Friday evening that the Poplar Bluff R-I School District issued a statement saying that students in a history class were divided into study groups and instructed to make presentations focused on amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the KKK dates back to 1865, right at the end of the Civil War. It is a white supremacist/white nationalist group with a history of oppressing, and sometimes killing, African Americans, Jews, Roman Catholics and others.

Despite the overtly racist costume, the district statement said that officials did not believe at this time that the student was intending to act in a discriminatory way.

“We, as a school district, are fully cognizant of the negative historical implication, and strong emotional response that this mode of dress may create,” the statement said, according to the TV station report.

The school said it was investigating the incident and would take steps to make sure it is "providing age-appropriate, historical context on these critical issues in a socially relevant and culturally responsible manner."

Early Friday evening, the News-Leader reached out to Dill's office and the Poplar Bluff district's communications office but has not yet received any response.

The costume became public in part because Poplar Bluff resident Brianna Anthony, a 2017 graduate of Poplar Bluff High School, shared a Facebook post showing the KKK outfit. She said she had not been in the classroom herself.

"It was posted on Snapchat by several people," Anthony said in a phone interview Friday. "I immediately screenshotted it. I know for a fact it was taken by someone who was there."

The social media posts, she said, were rapidly spreading around the Poplar Bluff community, prompting outrage among residents.

Anthony said, "I’ve never ever heard of a history teacher who said it was OK to use a KKK costume for a project. Because when people walk into that classroom and see that uniform, that’s automatically a red flag."

In Anthony's recollection from her days as a Poplar Bluff student, costumes weren't worn as part of history studies.

"We just got in in group projects and did, like, reports," she said. "We used costumes in English, going over stories."

Anthony said that the KKK does not really have a role in Poplar Bluff's community life. The city of 17,000 people is located in southeastern Missouri's Butler County.

"I'm not going to lie, there's racism," she said. "But there's racism in every town you live in."